These are my memories, and as with most memories they are incomplete and
will not always agree with the memories of others.

When I came to Clarkson in 1975, I had a dream to someday found a materials
center here.I was busy doing other
things for 10 years, but in the mid 1980s IBM
announced a competition for funding to initiate a materials center at a
university.We decided to compete. Jerrier (Jerry) Haddad, a senior vice
president at IBM and Clarkson trustee, advised me to prominently mention our
colloid chemistry activities, particularly those of Egon Matijevic, because these were
widely known.The Institute of Colloid
and Surface Science was Clarkson’s principle claim to fame in those days, with
an annual report that was widely circulated around the world. In spite of being
advised that “this was a waste of time because Clarkson wasn’t big enough to
compete,” in 1985 we received a grant of $12,000 from IBM for “Materials
Processing Preparation.”We were off
and running.In 1986 I resigned as chair
of chemical engineering and was allowed to work full time on developing a
materials center, with the encouragement and assistance of the Clarkson
administration.(One of the happiest
times of my career.)Dick Johnson and
Mary Lynne Pfeifer in our Development Office arranged trips to various NY-based
companies to solicit their support.Behind the scenes, the trustees were doing a lot to help.At a Colloid Institute meeting in the tiered
“UN room” in Clarkson Hall, I described this effort to the assembled faculty
members.Milt Kerker
said that “You know, don’t you, that the administration is using you.”I replied that “Gee, I thought I was using
the administration.”

Clarkson Vice President Tom
Williamson led a lobbying effort to add Clarkson to the New York State universities
receiving $1million per year from the State for Centers for Advanced Technology
(CATs), which aimed to use science and technology for economic
development.(I still don’t know if this
was Tom’s idea or that of President Alan Clark.)It was my privilege to accompany Tom on some
of his frequent trips to Albany, meeting with people in Governor Mario Cuomo’s
administration, with legislators, and with their staff.It was amazing to hear Tom describe the great
contributions that could be made by the state-of-the-art cutting-edge
technology available at Clarkson.Amazing because Tom had a law degree and had been hired by Clarkson
primarily for public relations.I knew
he didn’t really understand the technology, but he was quite convincing
nonetheless.He succeeded,
and was named “Rookie of the Year” by the Albany lobbyist
organization.(He later hired Rob Wood
to continue lobbying in Albany.)

Tom’s efforts led to enabling legislation
aimed at a CAT for “materials -- colloid and surface science,” knowing that
this would practically guarantee Clarkson would win any competition.(At the same time, Alfred was included via
another CAT that would be aimed at ceramics, their historic strength.)The first concrete manifestation of Tom’s
success was a grant of $400,000 in early 1987 through the New York State Science and Technology
Foundation for “Planning and Program Development of a Center for
Advanced Technology.”We used this to
purchase some key equipment, work on a proposal for a CAT, and meet with key
New York based companies, such as Corning, Kodak, Xerox, IBM, GE.I vividly recall sitting on the couch in
Tom’s office in old Snell Hall with Graham Jones, the head of the NY Science
and Technology Foundation, who said we needed a catchy name, preferably with an
easy-to-remember acronym.At some point,
I said “This would be funny; the Center for Advanced Materials Processing --
CAMP.”We never managed to come up with
anything better.

At the same time all of this was going on, Fred Carlson and I also began
participating in an effort to gain a Center for the Commercial Development of
Space (CCDS) for New York from NASA, in a second round of competitions.Grumman Aerospace in Bethpage was encouraging
this effort, which would be led by Brookhaven National Laboratory, also on Long
Island.The emphasis would be on
crystal growth, which was my long-time specialty and something Fred had been
working on in recent years.RPI, WPI and
Clarkson were asked to participate, with Grumman, Westinghouse, Boeing, and
Rockwell interested in supporting such a CCDS.However, at a meeting on Long Island attended by Fred, it was announced
that NASA would not allow national laboratories to head CCDS’s.Since this was to be a New York State
program, development of a proposal and any resulting center would instead have
to be led either by RPI or by Clarkson.The representatives from RPI said that if Clarkson wanted it, we could
have it (probably thinking that the time was so short that it was
hopeless).We decided to give it a
try.Grumman turned over their amazing
proposal preparation center to us, including personnel to type, edit, prepare
graphics, print, bind and mail the final document.From Grumman’s center, over the phone I
dictated a support letter from Vincent Tese, Cuomo’s
head of economic development, promising $200,000 per year (which presumably
would come from the $1 million that Clarkson would receive for a CAT, if indeed
we got one).Much to our delight and
surprise, we succeeded and received our first $1 million from NASA in 1986 for
our Consortium for Commercial Crystal Growth in Space.Over the years, most of this money was spent
on subcontracts to the other CCDS members.

Meanwhile, we were preparing the enormous
amount of paperwork required by NY for a CAT proposal.Several other well-known NY universities
contacted us to see if we planned to submit a proposal.When they were told we were, they decided not
even to try.Tom’s strategy of wiring
the CAT to “materials -- colloid and surface science,” had succeeded.Each copy of our proposal was about 2-feet
high, consisting mostly of reprints of recent faculty publications but with
huge tabulations of data, goals, objectives, etc.(That’s when I learned the difference between
goals and objectives.)The many copies
required were assembled with lots of help in the old Snell Hall Board room and
the adjacent President’s office.These
filled a van that Helen Chapple and her son drove to Albany the next day to
meet the deadline!

When Science and Tech “decided” to fund our
CAT, we were called to Albany to talk to the officials at the Science and
Technology Foundation about how the CAT would be managed.That meeting was when I first learned that
government bureaucracies are not thrilled when something is imposed on them by
a legislature or by congress.They were
even less pleased to learn that $200,000 of the $1million had already been
committed to our NASA CCDS.Wepromised that this
would be spent only for research at Clarkson and that it would be reduced by
$20,000 per year.While it lasted,
several professors benefited from this and other CCDS funding, including Fred Carlson, DaryAidun, John Moosbrugger, Dave Morrison, Iqbal Chaudhry, and Liya Regel.

Our first $1 million for CAMP operations
was received in 1987.Later that year, I
was appointed Dean of Engineering.Another part of Tom Williamson’s achievement was funding for the CAMP
building; $13.5 million as a grant, and $10 million as a 30-year no-interest
loan, all to be managed by the Urban Development Corporation in NY City.So planning began
for the building.An experienced
construction engineer, Dick Parsons, was hired to oversee the planning and
construction of both the CAMP building and the Cheel
student center.These were major
efforts, with input from President Richard Gallagher, the trustees, the
faculty, and myself.

With the CAT funding assured, we began
searching for an Associate Director for CAMP.Preferably someone with industrial experience and the right personality
to build corporate involvement, including a willingness to travel.This was not simple, and we were extremely
fortunate to find Ed McNamara, who was an Alfred ceramic engineer with many
years of experience in the ceramics, refractories and abrasives industry.Ed and I shared three small offices in Old
Main with two secretaries.

In the review of CAMP by the Science and
Technology Foundation in 1990, President Gallagher and I were told that it was an unacceptable conflict of
interest for me to be CAMP Director while also serving as Dean and head of our
NASA CCDS.Dick decided it was time to
recruit a new CAMP Director, and so Ray McKay took over the summer of 1991 as
we were moving into the new CAMP building.(It has caused no end of confusion for the Center and the building to
carry the same name, but that stemmed from the way it was all sold by Tom and
written into the legislation.)

The belief in manufacturing in space gradually evaporated after the
Challenger explosion in 1986.Finally,
NASA terminated most of the CCDS’s, including ours, in 1995.I resigned as dean the following year.At a party arranged by President Denny Brown,
I commented that “I’m glad I did it, and I’m glad I quit.” A major source of satisfaction in all my
management jobs at Clarkson has been helping other faculty members succeed,
particularly the young professors.But
as my thesis adviser from Berkeley said many years ago, “The best job at a
university is full professor – period.”